To figure this out, we used an updated version of our watchability rankings, which measured games on quality of play (for viewers) regardless of the narratives coming into the contest. Each game was scored on a 0-100 scale. Here's the new methodology:

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Upset (15 points): Determined by the difference between the final score and the betting line, with a bonus given to true upsets. Super Bowl III, in which Joe Namath led the Jets to a 16-7 win over the Colts despite being 18-point underdogs, gets a perfect 15.

Shootout (25 points): Based on the total points scored, because people like offense. The otherwise terrible Super Bowl XXIX, with 75 points scored in total, gets a perfect 25.

Closeness (50 points): Clearly the most important category. Determined by the worst fourth-quarter point differential faced by the game's eventual winner. Two teams have come back from seven-point deficits in the final quarter to take the title (Baltimore in Super Bowl V, 49ers in Super Bowl XXIII). These games get perfect 50s.

The Wire (10 point): To further reward closeness, 10 points are awarded for the four Super Bowls (1991, 2000, 2002, and 2004) that came down to the game's final, non-Hail Mary/kickoff return play. Games in which the lead changed on the final major drive got a five, and games that were close toward the very end but fizzled out in the last few minutes got a 1. The distribution of 1's is, admittedly, a little subjective.

Based on this methodology, here are the top 12 Super Bowls of all time:

Our rankings put Super Bowl XLVII at eighth, maybe not the best ever, but certainly one of the best. Super Bowl XXXVIII (2004), in which an insane 37 points were scored in the fourth quarter and the game ended on a 41-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri, comes in at No. 1. The "wide right" game (1991) take the second spot, and Super Bowl XXXVI (2002), won again on Vinatieri's toe in a huge upset of the Rams, comes in third. While this methodology is imperfect—Super Bowl XIII and Super Bowl XXXIV probably come in too low, for example—the top rankings track closely with the lists put together by some other journalists, such as SI's Richard Rothschild.

The chart above raises another question: Are we living in the golden age of the Super Bowl? Below is a graph of the five-year average for Super Bowl watchability, the combined quality of the game for each year, the two years prior, and the two years post:

Sure enough, after a rough period from 1993 to 1997, the Super Bowl has gotten more and more watchable (per our metric). However, since our rankings place Super Bowl XLII (2008) just ahead of this year's game, by our measurement the very best five-year stretch of Super Bowls was 2008-2012. The worst period was 1984-1988, when the Raiders, 49ers, Bears, Giants, and Redskins won in five consecutive blowouts.